There are various market participants that engage in buying, selling, finding and distributing content. Content owners typically own the copyright in the content and can distribute the content directly to consumers or can negotiate with distributors and/or retailers to allow them to distribute the content to the consumer. Distributors are typically ‘middle-men’ and contract with the content owners to distribute the content for the content owners. Distributors typically sell the content to the retailers. Retailers are typically the ‘shops’, whether they are ‘brick & mortar’ or web based, that sell the content to the consumer. Retailers contract with the distributor to obtain rights to market, sell, and distribute media to consumers The interrelation between these parties is sometimes known as a ‘value chain’, i.e., the content can be created by the owner, distributed by the distributor, sold by the retailer and purchased by the consumer. The price paid by the consumer then must “travel” back up the value chain to compensate each party for the sale. Other participants in the value chain having an interest in the media being created, distributed or consumed, include one or more of the following: the artist, the software player vendor, the device manufacturer or licensor, the patent holder, network providers, internet service providers, websites, clubs and the like.
In the content industries, content such as music, video, text (books, articles, e-magazines) and data (software) has been sold to consumers by retailers for years on various media including compact discs (CDs, CD-R), video and audio tapes (VHS, DAT) and digital video/versatile disk (DVD) sold at retail stores. The content owners, distributors, and retailers have contracts between them to divide the compensation between the parties. These contracts are negotiated in advance of offering the product and are typically static, i.e. the terms are pre-set and do not change unless the contract is renegotiated.
With the advent of the Internet, various consumer products, including content, are marketed and sold over the Internet. One version of an Internet transaction is where the financial transaction is handled electronically but the product is physically delivered by some other means such as the postal service or a private carrier. The consumer may purchase content from a retailer using a retailer's web site and receive the content in the mail. Once the consumer receives the physical content, having purchased it, the retailer and content owner have lost control over that content in that, for example, the music may be copied but no further payment or royalties are collectable.
Another version of an Internet transaction is that the content is also available on the Internet for consumers to access without purchasing. For example, music and video are transmitted over the Internet, played at the consumer's computer by a software application such as Real-Player but the content is not resident at the consumer's computer. The consumer does not own, retain and cannot replay the content without accessing the source through the Internet. The source retains control over the content.
A third version of an Internet transaction is that consumers can find, purchase and receive content completely over the Internet in a way comparable to conventional purchasing at a retail store that also offers alternatives to purchasing, such as renting music. The consumer accesses the retailer's web page, selects the particular piece of content, purchases it and the content is downloaded directly to the consumer's computer.
Internet technology also affords users across the globe the ability to communicate, e.g., by electronic mail. The sender types or otherwise inputs a message into their personal computer and directs the message to a recipient. An application on the sender's computer establishes communication with a server connected to the Internet and transmits the message. The message may be sent from one server to another depending on the recipient's address. Finally, the destination server transmits the message to the recipient's personal computer. The message may include any electronic data ranging from simple text to complex audio-video material. The entire process can be completed in a very short time.
With appropriate applications, such as ICQ and AOL's Instant Messaging and depending on network traffic and performance, the communication can be so fast as to seem instantaneous to the users participating in the communication. This is achieved by transmitting the message as it is being inputted rather than waiting for the complete message to be input and then sending it. The basic requirement for this type of communication is that both of the users have activated access to the Internet (i.e. both users must be logged on to the network). In addition, the message is usually limited to textual data. To the users, the effect is real-time dialog using electronic data. This system is referred to as Instant Messaging.
An extension of direct communication between the sender and a specific recipient or group of named recipients is dynamic group communication. This system, referred to as Chat, is a conversation among several users where participants can join or leave the conversation at any time. Chat groups may be open to the public or restricted, e.g., limited to persons with a password.
The content industry allows consumers to purchase content over the Internet using complex back-office systems, as stated above. One of the features that enables electronic commerce of content over the Internet to be profitable, is the continued control over the content after its delivered to the consumer. In addition, there are potentially many parties in the value chain having an ownership or financial interest in the content, or the distribution or consumption of the content, and each party's interest must be reliably tracked.
Given the complexity of the transactions and the advances in Internet communication, there is a need for a system and method of tracking and protecting the ownership or financial interests of all parties involved that is conducive to electronic commerce for the application of advanced communication to the sale of content. What is further needed is a system that transmits data sequentially but also has synchronization capabilities so that users in different locations can experience the same media at the same time. The present invention satisfies these and other needs.